Robert McCrum on books + Charles Dickens | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/series/robert-mccrum-on-books+charlesdickens
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How to choose the 100 best novelshttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/25/choose-100-best-novels-classic-mccrum
I'm only a tenth of the way through my Guardian/Observer list, and as I revisit old favourites from week to week I find my contemporary verdict refracted through past readings<p>The first classic of English literature I can remember reading is Animal Farm. I was about 11 or 12 years old and lying on my bed with the rough, tickling sensation of a bright red blanket on my bare legs. I still have my Penguin edition, spine broken, and with loose yellowing pages. Somehow, the combination of Orwell and a scratchy institutional blanket seems appropriate.</p><p>Compiling this Guardian/Observer list of 100 great novels in the English language, and rediscovering old favourites from week to week, has become as much an autobiographical as a literary process. I keep meeting my juvenile self in forgotten states and discarded guises: sitting in a cricket pavilion on a wet summer's afternoon with The Code of the Woosters; roaming Dorset on a bicycle, aged 15, with Jude The Obscure, or was it The Mayor of Casterbridge? Eking out the tedium of school with a copy of Vanity Fair; by the seaside with Middlemarch, and so on.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/25/choose-100-best-novels-classic-mccrum">Continue reading...</a>Daniel DefoeBooksEdgar Allan PoeSir Walter ScottCharles DickensJane AustenNobel peace prizeCultureFictionMon, 25 Nov 2013 13:04:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/25/choose-100-best-novels-classic-mccrumPhotograph: Sam FrostDecisions, decisions … Shelves of Penguin paperbacks. Photograph: Sam FrostPhotograph: Sam FrostDecisions, decisions … Shelves of Penguin paperbacks. Photograph: Sam FrostRobert McCrum2013-11-25T13:04:18ZEnglish literature's 50 key moments from Marlowe to JK Rowlinghttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/feb/04/english-literature-key-moments-jk-rowling
What have been the hinge points in the evolution of Anglo-American literature? Here's a provisional, partisan list<p>BBC Radio Three is currently broadcasting a fascinating series on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0147b49" title="">the "50 key works" of classical music</a>. This is a spin-off from Howard Goodall's BBC2 television series and its tie-in book, <a href="http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780701187521" title="">The Story of Music (Chatto)</a>, and it crystallises – for the amateur listener – the turning points in the evolution of the classical tradition in the most enthralling way. Did you, for instance, know that Procul Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale contains a harmonic line that is pure Bach?</p><p>So much for music. Following Radio 3, I've found myself speculating about the 50 key moments in the Anglo-American literary tradition. Arguably, Goodall's very good idea works almost as well for the history of the printed page.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/feb/04/english-literature-key-moments-jk-rowling">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureChristopher MarloweWilliam ShakespeareJohn MiltonSamuel PepysJohn LockeWilliam CongreveDaniel DefoeJonathan SwiftSamuel JohnsonMary WollstonecraftWilliam WordsworthLord ByronEmily BrontëCharles DickensHerman MelvilleCharles DarwinLewis CarrollWilkie CollinsGeorge EliotRobert Louis StevensonOscar WildeThomas HardyJM BarrieJames JoyceTS EliotF Scott FitzgeraldGeorge OrwellIan FlemingJack KerouacMaurice SendakTruman CapoteWG SebaldAmazonJK RowlingTed HughesFictionPoetryTheatreJane AustenMon, 04 Feb 2013 12:30:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/feb/04/english-literature-key-moments-jk-rowlingPhotograph: Hulton Getty/Murdo MacleodLiterary turning points ... Christopher Marlowe and JK Rowling. Photograph: Hulton Getty/Murdo MacleodPhotograph: Hulton Getty/Murdo MacleodLiterary turning points ... Christopher Marlowe and JK Rowling. Photograph: Hulton Getty/Murdo MacleodRobert McCrum2013-02-04T12:30:12ZDickens, Browning and Lear: what's in a reputation?https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/may/17/dickens-browning-lear-reputation
The bicentenaries of three great Victorian writers underline the capricious nature of literary afterlives<p>What are the qualities that make a writer endure and flourish? It's an intriguing question whose answer includes luck, good timing and the mysterious workings of the zeitgeist. Take 2012. This year sees the bicentenary of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/07/robert-browning-bicentenary" title="">Robert Browning</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/charles-dickens-at-200" title="">Charles Dickens</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/11/birthday-edward-lear-bicentenary" title="">Edward Lear</a>. No need to over-think the glorious posterity of the Inimitable. He was simply a genius who created a whole world for ages to come. But with Browning and Lear it gets more complicated.</p><p>Browning's afterlife is a conundrum. He was the equal of Tennyson, yet the object of much scorn. Wilde's celebrated crack ("Meredith was a prose Browning, and so was Browning") can stand for a range of baffled commentary inspired by his dramatic monologues, <a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/lippi/text.html" title="">Fra Lippo Lippi</a>, for example. He also wrote some lovely, intimate poems (especially <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173022" title="">Meeting At Night</a>), but is remembered in schools as the author of <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/piper/text.html" title="">The Pied Piper of Hamelin</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/may/17/dickens-browning-lear-reputation">Continue reading...</a>BooksCharles DickensCultureEdward LearThu, 17 May 2012 13:17:32 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/may/17/dickens-browning-lear-reputationPhotograph: London Stereoscopic Company/Getty ImagesCharles Dickens's literary reputation is assured – but what about his contemporaries'? Photograph: London Stereoscopic Company/Getty ImagesPhotograph: London Stereoscopic Company/Getty ImagesCharles Dickens's literary reputation is assured – but what about his contemporaries'? Photograph: London Stereoscopic Company/Getty ImagesRobert McCrum2012-05-17T13:17:32ZWhy modern novelists need to watch their weighthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/19/novels-size-robert-mccrum
Some great books have no more than 200 pages, so why do we now think that big is best?<p>In these lean times, fiction is putting on weight. Take three of the major novels out in the next few weeks. Never mind the quality, which is variable, feel the width. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/data/book/fiction/9780434020942/angelmaker" title=""><em>Angelmaker</em></a> (Heinemann), Nick Harkaway's second novel, weighs in at 576 pages. My copy of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/data/book/fiction/9780571234608/capital" title=""><em>Capital</em></a> (Faber) by John Lanchester tips the scales at 577pp. <em>The Bellwether Revivals</em> by Benjamin Wood (S&amp;S) is a 420-page debut. Even the Costa winner, Andrew Miller's <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/data/book/fiction/9781444724257/pure" title=""><em>Pure</em></a> (Sceptre), runs to a chunky 352 pages. When last year's Booker winner, <em>The Sense of an Ending</em>, was first shortlisted, there were some who said that, at 150 pages, it wasn't really a novel. Whatever happened to the slim volume?</p><p>You can blame the computer for the contemporary writer's reluctance to cut. Again, you can blame the decline of editing at the big imprints, which is actually more apparent than real. Or you can point the finger at the pressures of the marketplace, especially in America.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/19/novels-size-robert-mccrum">Continue reading...</a>FictionCharles DickensBooksCultureSun, 19 Feb 2012 00:05:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/19/novels-size-robert-mccrumPhotograph: Richard Saker/ObserverNovelist Nick Harkaway, whose new novel, Angelmaker, weighs in at 576 pages. Photograph: Richard Saker for the ObserverPhotograph: Richard Saker/ObserverNovelist Nick Harkaway, whose new novel, Angelmaker, weighs in at 576 pages. Photograph: Richard Saker for the ObserverRobert McCrum2012-02-19T00:05:11ZGreat Scott! Fitzgerald is enjoying a third acthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/05/scott-fitzgerald-gatsby-mccrum
New stage and film adaptations of The Great Gatsby attest to Scott Fitzgerald's enduring brilliance and his relevance to our boom and bust age<p>In one of his most famous and personal <em>obiter dicta</em>, F Scott Fitzgerald once bitterly observed: "There are no second acts in American lives." The author of <em>The Great Gatsby</em>, arguably the supreme American novel of the 20th century, knew what he was talking&nbsp;about.</p><p>Few writers have ever enjoyed a more brilliant first act. Fitzgerald's 1925 debut was sensational in a way that's only possible in a feverish, self-inventing society such as the US. <em>This Side of Paradise</em> was a first novel whose language, characters and attitude haunted the Jazz Age (Fitzgerald's phrase) like a hit song. A five-year creative spree followed, culminating in&nbsp;the book originally titled "Trimalchio in West Egg". As <em>The Great Gatsby</em>, it was a novel that had awestruck critics, led by the young TS Eliot, fighting for superlatives.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/05/scott-fitzgerald-gatsby-mccrum">Continue reading...</a>F Scott FitzgeraldCharles DickensBooksCultureWoody AllenFilmThe Great GatsbySun, 05 Feb 2012 00:05:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/05/scott-fitzgerald-gatsby-mccrumPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountBruce Dern, Mia Farrow and Robert Redford in 1974's The Great Gatsby. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountBruce Dern, Mia Farrow and Robert Redford in 1974's The Great Gatsby. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountRobert McCrum2012-02-05T00:05:13ZThe best of times to writehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/oct/27/best-times-to-write
Dickens was all done by 2pm, long before Robert Frost got going. Do your words flow better at certain times of day?<p>I have been reading <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9780670917679/charles-dickens-a-life" title="">Claire Tomalin's bicentennial biography of Charles Dickens</a> – the latest in a long line that begins with <a href="http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/jforster/bl-jforster-cdickens-1.htm" title="">The Life of Charles Dickens</a> by the novelist's friend and adviser John Forster, and includes important studies by Peter Ackroyd, Michael Slater and, most recently, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/history/9780674050037/becoming-dickens-the-invention-of-a-novelist" title="">Becoming Dickens</a> by Robert Douglas Fairhurst.</p><p>The thing I always take away from reading about the Inimitable, as he styled himself (half-joking), is his prodigious energy and his Victorian capacity for sheer hard work. Reviews, letters, petitions, journalism, stories, plays, scraps of poetry, more letters on myriad topics (from interior decor to prison reform), and finally of course the 14 great novels themselves. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/oct/27/best-times-to-write">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureCreative writingCharles DickensRobert FrostThu, 27 Oct 2011 11:40:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/oct/27/best-times-to-writePhotograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesCharles Dickens's morning routine. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesCharles Dickens's morning routine. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesRobert McCrum2011-10-27T11:40:44ZRobert McCrum Cricket: less a game, more a metaphor for a way of lifehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/robert-mccrum-cricket-books
From JM Barrie to Harold Pinter, cricket has always had a close relationship with literature, but it was Dickens who unwittingly sponsored the Ashes…<p>Everyone knows that cricket is a civilising game. Even Robert Mugabe recognised this, once. In the first flush of his country's independence, he is reported to have said, "I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe. I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen."</p><p>Beyond fiction? Cricket brings many strange alliances, especially in literature. Quiz addicts may know that Samuel Beckett is the only Nobel laureate to appear in the cricketer's bible, <em>Wisden</em>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/robert-mccrum-cricket-books">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureHarold PinterCharles DickensJM BarrieTom StoppardSamuel BeckettSat, 18 Jul 2009 23:08:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/robert-mccrum-cricket-booksPhotograph: AFPSamuel Beckett, the only Nobel laureate featured in Wisden. Photograph: AFPPhotograph: AFPSamuel Beckett, the only Nobel laureate featured in Wisden. Photograph: AFPRobert McCrum2009-07-18T23:08:46Z